nonscriptum | hadriel { ic inbox }

Something like that.

[NERVOUS LAUGHTER]

Look, in my defense, she had coffee. Really good coffee.

Oh, no.

[He knew who it was before she even started to explain. Suddenly full of nervous energy with zero outlet, Nate paces.]

No, no, no, please tell me this isn't exactly who I think it is. Please.

[She knows he knows, and she's already cringing. Oh, if only honesty weren't important to have in a marriage.]

If you think it's Caedra...I can't. It turns out she's really nice when she's not trying to kill puny mortals! Great hostess. Can't complain at all.

[Cringing is the least of his worries. He's already thinking about flaying, and vivisecting, and other super gross physical torments that Caedra could leverage over him thanks to this event.]

Except for the part where that's the exception and not the rule, right?

[Nate is trying not to let the concern bleed into his voice, but he was never very good at that with people who know him well.]

She eats souls, Elena.

[She is trying very hard not to think about the flaying and the vivisecting!]

Yes, I know! Jesus, Nate, I'm not really going to become besties with her. Neither of us were in our right mind.

[She can't begin to imagine what Caedra might think now that it's over.]

Look, I'm not-

[He groans, and the shifting sound over the phone suggests he's pacing.]

I'm not trying to lecture you, you know that isn't my thing, I just- I love you, I don't want her to use you to fuck with me, or vice versa, because she will.

No, I know....I know. I get it.

[Boy, does she. If their positions were reversed? She'd be petrified now.]

Honestly, this is just me being mortified. Even if it was more bullshit supernatural influence, it feels like I should have been able to listen to the tiny part of me that was screaming internally.

Tell me about it.

[The little part of him that was screaming when they decided to separate for the duration of the event so they wouldn't murder each other wasn't loud enough, either.]

You guys didn't...sit around talking about personal stuff, right? Should we be worried about her showing up with a soul worm casserole for dinner?

No, no...I mean, a little. Not that personal? We talked about our worlds a little—my career, a play she did.

[She'll...leave out the part where they play involved a lot of viscera that was not made using costume blood.]

Honestly, it was pretty mundane. Which is part of what makes it so freaky now that I'm in my right mind.

Maybe just, uh- keep your distance.

[He knows she's conscious of that, it doesn't actually need to be said, but the idea of Elena spending quality time with Caedra to any extent unsettles him more than the fact that he actually has to spend quality time with Caedra, to pick up information to feed to Nick.

It's hypocritical. He knows. He's only human.]

If she ever finds out I'm the one who got her battery drained, I don't- I don't even wanna think about it. Honestly. If anything happened to you-

I know, cowboy. It's the same for me.

[He doesn't have to finish, doesn't have to reveal his vulnerable spot because she already knows what it is, and shares it. Just imagining what Caedra might do to him directly if she knew what Nate had done—because she knows hurting her to hurt him would not be the stopping point—twists things inside her she didn't know could be twisted.]

I'll keep out of her way. I promise. Just...you be careful too, all right?

[Nate has had a lot of time to think about what will - he's stopped wondering if it's just might - happen when Caedra finds out. He has a vague contingency plan, has shared with reliable parties that if he should disappear, they know where to look first. That if he should disappear, they know who to protect first.

Revenge takes shape in plenty of forms, but Nate knows there's no way he'll get out of this without having the flesh peeled from his still-breathing body.]

I will.

[It isn't a lie. He intends to maintain the semi-friendly status quo as long as humanly possible, if not indefinitely.]

I promise.

Good.

[A promise is a promise, exactly as good as its ability to be kept. Nate will do his best, she's sure. Whatever doubts Elena has don't apply to him. It's everything else that's in question, and faith only goes so far when murderous demonic entities are in play.]

Hey. I love you.

I love you too.

[It comes easily, simply. There's only so much they can do to predict the unpredictable.]

Get home soon, okay?

I will.

[Sooner rather than later, as rattled as she's feeling now.]

See you soon, cowboy.

hadriel { ic inbox }

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